A Peaceful Boycott Should Not be a Crime

A Peaceful Boycott Should Not be a Crime

In its bid to maintain its occupation of Gaza and the
West Bank, the Israeli government has launched a new offensive, this one
against its own citizens. A bill that is currently before the Knesset
would allow Israelis who support boycotts against Israel to be sued for
damages. The bill is part of a government backlash against a small but
growing number of Israelis who have taken up the tactic of boycott,
sanctions and divestment (BDS) to bring about an end to their
government's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The Real News Network recently presented this report on the bill and the Israeli BDS movement.

Human rights organizations in Israel and internationally have condemned the bill as draconian and anti-democratic. Human Rights Watch
has called on the Knesset to reject it along with three other bills
"that would seriously restrict the rights of Israelis to criticize the
policies and actions of their government."

According to Yasmeen Daher, of CWP, peace and human rights activists
in Israel face a range of threats beyond the government's latest
efforts to outlaw political dissent:

"In the past year, we have seen an increasing wave of
assaults against Palestinian and Israeli human rights defenders and
civil society organizations- by Israeli officials, security forces,
journalists and right-wing organizations. Palestinians who engage in the
popular struggle are arrested and terrorized and Israelis who protest
the government's illegal policies are marked as "traitors". The Israeli
policy regarding nonviolent protest is that any opinion that does not
serve the so-called "national interest" should be persecuted, silenced
and quashed."

We may not all agree about whether boycotts are
the right tactic to use at this time in our efforts to end the
occupation. But we should all agree to oppose repression against
activists who use non-violent tactics to press their government to
comply with international law. That's what Israeli supporters of BDS are
doing and they deserve our support.

Yifat Susskind is the Executive Director of MADRE, an international women's human rights organization. She has worked with women’s human rights activists from Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa to create programs in their communities to address women's health, violence against women, economic and environmental justice and peace building. She has also written extensively on US foreign policy and women’s human rights and her critical analysis has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy in Focus and elsewehere.

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